Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications such as Shareaza, Limewire, Gnucleus and Gnutella2, referred to as P2P clients, enable a user to send a search query for a file or files through a P2P network in order to find the file(s). When the file(s) that the user is searching for is found, query responses returned to the user inform the user where to find the files. Using the query responses, the user can download one or several of the file(s) onto his device. For devices that have limited capabilities, such as wireless communication devices, the device may be unable to access or play the downloaded file because of limited memory, insufficient processing capacity, not the right codec or not the right user interface device, such as a display having a particular display size. Accordingly, downloading files that are user inaccessible on a particular device because of limited capabilities thereof both frustrates the user and utilizes, thereby wasting, valuable battery life, network bandwidth and/or processing capacity.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for automatically filtering peer-to-peer network searches such that all files downloaded to a device can be accessed (e.g., played or viewed) by a user of that device. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.